Could Trump Be His Own Valentine? On Narcissism and Selfless Self-Love
摘要
In this chapter, I aim to contribute to the philosophy of love by arguing for a conceptual distinction between two varieties of self-love. One is the narcissistic variety that seems exemplified by Donald Trump’s egoistic and impulsive tendency to satisfy merely his own desires. The other is the selfless variety that is morally respectable and that can be modeled on the ordinary love relation between two persons. The distinction is explored and analyzed to make a case against the assumption that self-regarding people neglect their moral concerns. The analysis involves a conceptual exploration of the different roles played by people in love relationships, roles that can best be identified and understood when we focus on reciprocal relations, for which I use, as an illustration, the relation between Donald and Melania Trump. A crucial feature of roles in a reciprocal relationship is that they comprise both passivity and activity. Understanding how the active and the passive are interrelated is key to understanding the morally respectable variety of self-love, which involves, as I argue, the self-lover’s capacity to actively receive their own love.